Putin inspects new nuclear submarines, says more being rolled out

Monday’s televised flag-raising ceremony for two nuclear submarines, which President Vladimir Putin claimed were a part of a strategic effort to spread Russian naval power, was attended by the president.

Putin visited the northern city of Severodvinsk to see the Emperor Alexander the Third and Krasnoyarsk ships at the Sevmash shipbuilding yard.

Putin emphasised that both nuclear-powered ships were a part of two distinct submarine series that Russia is deploying and that they would shortly begin serving in the Pacific.

“We will quantitatively strengthen the combat readiness of the Russian Navy, our naval power in the Arctic, the Far East, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Caspian Sea – the most important strategic areas of the world’s oceans,” he said, flanked by officials and naval officers on an outdoor stage with snowflakes fluttering in the air.

As the first new generation of Russian nuclear submarines launched since the end of the Cold War, the Emperor Alexander III is a member of the new Borei (Arctic Wind) class.

The defence ministry announced last month that the ship had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile with nuclear capability, the Bulava.

Putin said that the Yasen (Ash Tree) class of multipurpose submarines, of which the Krasnoyarsk is a member, is capable of hitting both land and sea targets with its long-range, highly accurate missiles.

Putin, who declared last Friday that he would run for president again in the March election, has frequently emphasised the potential of Russia’s modern weapons, especially its nuclear arsenal, and their use as a deterrence against the West.

Security analysts claim that since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, when his conventional forces are engaged in an unending battle of attrition, nuclear weapons have taken on a greater significance in his rhetoric and way of thinking.

(With agency inputs)